Northwestern president says no plans to fire AD over hazing scandal - ESPN

Northwestern president Michael Schill said he is not considering firing athletic director Derrick Gragg and isn't concerned about his own employment status amid the football hazing scandal and other challenges with the school's athletic programs.

In his first interview since firing football coach Pat Fitzgerald on July 10, Schill told The Daily Northwestern that there is «no conversation» about Gragg's job status and that most of the hazing allegations took place prior to Gragg's arrival in 2021. Schill also said the «vast majority» of Northwestern's trustees supported his decision to fire Fitzgerald, even though three days earlier he had announced merely a two-week suspension for the coach after the school finished a six-month investigation into hazing allegations.

«I don't just make decisions and just sort of move on to the next thing,» Schill told the newspaper. «I think about what I've done, and I decided after further reflection that I might've made a mistake in coming up with the two weeks.… I think that if a leader messes up, they should own up to it, they should take responsibility. The worst thing you can do is just pretend it didn't happen. You realize you made a mistake and you fix it and you make the right decision, because that's what a stand-up leader does.»

Schill said he was impacted by details of the hazing allegations, which a former Northwestern player relayed to The Daily Northwestern in a July 8 story. He also said «additional allegations» and conversations with trustees and others led him to rethink the initial discipline for Fitzgerald and reach the decision to fire the coach for cause.

Schill said no other Northwestern coaches or players have faced discipline as none were identified as culpable in